Last week, Andy came into the office so that we could work on the church newsletter together. She brought in her laptop and we worked on getting things together so we could get the newsletter to people last Sunday. Now we spent some time getting the last few bits of the letter together and quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to use this new computer with its new software and new operating system and new whatever. We fussed and we griped and we complained about “why on Earth would they change everything?”

I walked away from my office that day laughing at myself. Here I am, young, a technophile, and I’m complaining because technology has changed. And I get in my car and the CD starts playing and it’s a rock-n-roll band I listened to in high school. And I laughed again. I’m listening to music that’s 20 years old. I thought, “Oh, no, I’ve become my mother.” Back when I was growing up, she used to fuss about computers, hated using them, and she subjected my sister and I to her music from the 60s, which was about 20 years old at that time.

I take great pride in being a political progressive, but I must confess that within my heart there is a very strong streak of conservativism. Not about politics, but certainly about most everything else. I have moments when I feel like the world is just racing by me and that I want it to slow down. To not change so darn much. I want things the way they used to be, when life was simpler, music was better, and everything still made sense. I’m beginning to resent change. I’m finding myself suspicious of the new.

And I know I’m not alone. It seems to be a human tendency that as we progress in years, we get comfortable where we are and we resist the changes that the world brings. Changes in everything, politics, pop culture, technology, you name it. It evolves. It progresses. It changes. Even here in the church. There’s a reason why people in pews like these grumble and say that phrase every church leader loathes “We’ve never done it that way before.”

I bring this up today because I want to expand a bit on some ideas I presented in last week’s sermon. You may recall that I talked about Jesus as following in the footsteps of prophets and liberators before him. That God is faithful to his people in sending people to them who come to set them free from the bondage of tyranny or from their own shortsighted stupidity. Jesus is in the same mold as such men as Moses, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and David. Liberators, prophets, rescuers send by God to set the people free, to protect them, and to guide them.

But I also pointed out that while all this true, Jesus is also something new. He’s something different. He’s something more than these other prophets of old. And if our own experiences with the new, with change, with things different than they were before is any indication, it may say a great bit about why things during the last week of Jesus’ life play out the way they do.

But it all begins with the events of this day, with Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The people have come to know Jesus by this point. Three years of ministry. Three years of teaching. Three years of miracles and healings. Three years of expectation for this moment. The liberating prophet is coming to Jerusalem, to the seat of political power. The kingdom of God, that Jesus and his disciples have been saying is near, is about to happen.

“Hosanna!” They cry. “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the Son of David. The prophet from Nazareth of Galilee has come.”

Yes, indeed. The kingdom of God is about to happen, but not in the way they think. Yes, the Son of David has come, but he is heir to a throne unlike the one they expect. Yes, the liberating prophet has come to Jersualem, but he is not here to liberate them from what they think. Jesus is something new. Jesus is something different.

However, you may remember that last week I pointed out that really only a handful have truly seen Jesus, the real Jesus. Only a few have seen him go to the outcasts and understood what it meant. Only a few have seen him go to the Gentile, to the Roman, and understood what it meant. Understood that Jesus has not come for only a few, but for all. And only a handful have heard the stories and realized what they meant, what Jesus was trying to teach them. Only a handful have seen the miracles for what they truly are, signs of new reality, signs like the raising of Lazarus that point to the world free from the power of humanity’s greatest foe: death itself.

True to this, Jesus passes by the halls of power. He passes by the garrisons of Jerusalem, he passes by the palaces of the rich and mighty, and goes from the gate to the temple to pray and worship. And the people’s cries die off as they realize this isn’t what they expected. This isn’t what they wanted. And they’ve just received a colossal disappointment.

They wanted it the old way. They wanted Jesus to be like those prophets of old. They wanted him to come in and kick out the Romans, take the throne, and be a king like they had before. A king like they wanted, who would champion their causes, do justice their way. But Jesus isn’t playing by their rules and now they’re mad. And it’s only a few short days before that anger finds voice. “Crucify him!”

No, Jesus is not playing by their rules. He’s not playing by the old rules. He’s playing by the new rules, by God’s rules. This is the new liberating prophet. Come to set the whole world free from the power of sin and death. This is the new liberating prophet. Come to see all people, all people not just a part, free from the power of evil.

It is so easy to fault them for their lack of vision, those Jews of old. But the truth is we’re just like them. And we too can and sometimes do lose sight of the fact that God is doing something new in Jesus Christ.

We too want them to play by the old rules, by our rules, with God hating who we hate, and loving only who we love. If that’s who we think Jesus is and why he came, then we are going to be just as much of a colossal disappointment as those gathered on that first Palm Sunday.

That’s not how it works. Jesus has come to change the world, to set right all that has gone wrong. Jesus has come to bring a new covenant, to bring the true kingdom of God to the people. This is no kingdom like we’ve seen before and its enemies are the enemies of all of humankind. Enemies that plague us from without and within.

And his weapons in this war are unlike weapons of any other war. Gone are swords and guns and bombs. No, here Jesus employs love and mercy, forgiveness and healing, service and sacrifice.

This is the new way! This is how the world will truly change. Not through our hate, our anger, our ambition, or our stubbornness but through God’s love. That’s how it will happen. A love that sent Jesus, the new prophet. A love that brought healing. A love that embraced the rejected. A love that gave all upon a cross. A love that would not be contained in a tomb of stone.

Love has come. God has sent his prophet. God has sent his liberator. He’s come for all of us. He’s come to die and rise to set us free. Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.